PlayStation Network maintenance scheduled for later today

The next round of scheduled PSN maintenance will kick off later today (March 10th), Sony has announced via its PlayStation Community portal.

The maintenance window extends for around five and a half hours from 4:30pm GMT (6:30pm South African time) until 10pm today, and will affect PS4, PS3, PS Vita and PSP owners.

The following services will be inaccessible during the maintenance window:

PlayStation Store

PlayStation Home

Account Management

Account Registration

Transactions via the console

sonyentertainmentnetwork.com website

Users may still be able to sign into their PSN account during the maintenance window provided they have previously done so in the seven days prior to the maintenance.

Additionally, users can sign into PSN before the maintenance begins at 4:30pm GMT today if they want to play online during the downtime.

Scheduled PlayStation Network maintenance is usually followed by a new firmware update for either PS4, PS3 or PS Vita so perhaps Sony is readying a significant system update for its latest console that addresses some commonly requested PS4 features such as MP3 and DLNA support.